Some games I'm gutted not to see in here (particularly some of the adventure games I've been following... bah), but yeah, that Trauma looks interesting... and free to play sometime this year which should be good.

Was also surprised to see Rocketbirds in so many categories, I liked it, but I didn't think it was that groundbreaking apart from some very good production values.

I am personally disgusted by the lack of VVVVVV, Windosill, Captain Forever, and Eversion. Especially the first two.

And then probably less-reasonably disgusted by the lack of 78641, Restraining Order, and Tanaka's Friendly Adventure, all of which I like particularly and were entered but probably aren't the sort of games which you'd expect to win anything.

This is the problem with having entries which have been released mixed in with entries which remain unreleased. I feel like the games I know are good have been gypped by games of which I have no knowledge.

And then probably less-reasonably disgusted by the lack of 78641, Restraining Order, and Tanaka's Friendly Adventure, all of which I like particularly and were entered but probably aren't the sort of games which you'd expect to win anything.

VVVVVV should have won. There isn't any justice in the world. At the very least it should have gotten in for "excellence in design", it's very tightly crafted. Congrats to everybody who made it thus far, though.

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Monaco looks like a fun little roguelike actually, kind of like spelunky, but with 4 player co-op, seems like a winning formula to me!

First of all, big congrats to all the finalists! You guys rock! I'm looking forward to see what happens next.

I mentioned this elsewhere but I'm slightly dispointed to see only 20 games nominated. 5 games per category is nice but having some game repeated numerous time is a bit too much in my opinion. I mean, not from the point of view of a contestant nor a judge, but from a point of view of someone visiting. 300+ entries and you only get to see like 20 games. The indies boast their ability for originality and variety but during the show, they'll be only a handful of games. Maybe it's room issues? I dunno. Makes me feel as if either A) 286 titles were not that good (which is not the case) or B) The indie world is not that varied after all.

But hey, it still a good selection and it should be an interesting show. I guess I was expecting something more with a record breaking 306 entries. It's not like there were only a few games to choose from. Maybe next year? I dunno.

And then probably less-reasonably disgusted by the lack of 78641, Restraining Order, and Tanaka's Friendly Adventure,all of which I like particularly and were entered but probably aren't the sort of games which you'd expect to win anything.

An unsolicited, unpaid shoutout for Restraining Order?The funniest, least played game of 2009?Rejected by the holy trinity of IndieCade, Pax and now IGF?GooGooJoob, you are indeed the walrus.

First off, awesome job everyone. Such stiff competition and what a line-up! Great work to all involved and congrats to the nominees! I think the only thing (and I had to dig for something) is what Dock said about number of nominees v. slots.

I think it's a shame when something like Windosill doesn't get in excellence in visual art but plenty of games span multiple categories so they don't have to dole out as many passes. Windosill is fucking mindblowing. MINDBLOWING. I spend hours awake at night wondering how he did it.

Congrats to all the finalists and everyone who entered! I'm a little bummed that my entry didn't make it, but it gives me a chance to reimagine things and hopefully make something that much better (I'll certainly be back next year, and this time I'll actually enter the student one... (I thought you had to be in a dedicated game dev/design program, so I paid the $95 even though I'm a high school student )).

Congratulations to all the finalists, and great job to everyone who put the time and energy into entering as well! ^_^ I'm particularily happy about seeing Owl Boy and Enviro-Bear 2000!

It would have been nice to see VVVVVV in the design category, and I would have liked to have seen fewer repeated nominations. It makes it seem as though judges would like a particular game and then just give it high marks across the board as opposed to truly evaluating each category separately. In the audio category for example, almost all of the audio finalists were also finalists in something else. Don't get me wrong, they had great audio... but I felt that there were several lesser known titles I'd played (I tried to play as many of the IGF entrants as possible) that really shined specifically in the audio category.

I want to chime in on something real quick, because I'm seeing a lot of mentions about the repeat nominations. We don't choose the finalists; they are simply the top-scoring games in each category. There is no editorial control (we can't look at a category and say, "Oh, we should pull Game X because it's already a finalist in A and B"). The judges' scores are the sole determining factor in who is and isn't a finalist.